SMU in Dallas lands Bush library

ANGELA K. BROWN

Published 6:00 pm, Thursday, February 21, 2008

Associated Press Writer

Southern Methodist University will be home to George W. Bush's presidential library, officials formally announced Friday after a yearlong approval process that some faculty and religious opponents failed to derail.

Because exclusive negotiations dragged on for more than a year between SMU and Bush library officials, the only surprise was when _ not if _ the deal would be announced.

It finally happened after SMU's board of trustees on Friday unanimously approved the official agreement with the Bush Foundation, which will manage construction and raise money for the project, expected to cost more than $200 million.

During a news conference at SMU on Friday, former Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, chairman of the presidential library site selection committee, said Bush told him that morning that he wanted his library at SMU, his wife's alma mater.

"The SMU campus, given its beauty and location in an exciting urban setting, is an excellent site for the library and related facilities," Bush wrote in a Friday letter to SMU President R. Gerald Turner. "I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency _ from economic (issues) and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy."

SMU was chosen because it is in Dallas, one of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, and its connection to the Bush family, Evans said.

"This was the college that Laura Welch selected some 40 years ago, and today the Bushes choose it again," Evans said. "It should also be noted that George and Laura, as many of you know, spent a number of happy years in Dallas, Texas. So how fitting is it that this storied political life that began here in Texas will write its final chapters right here in the good ole' Lone Star State and right here at this campus."

But some professors who still oppose the project were disappointed.

"We haven't protested in awhile but that doesn't mean we don't still oppose it _ it's more a feeling of being resigned to it," said Susanne Johnson, a theology professor.

Construction is to start next year and be completed in about five years, Evans said. The library, museum and public policy institute _ called the Presidential Center _ will be on the eastern part of the 11,000-student, private university in one of Dallas's wealthiest neighborhoods. The library and museum will be run by the National Archives and Records Administration, while the institute will be run by the foundation.

Evans and Turner said negotiations were lengthy because they involved complicated legal issues and that the agreement between SMU and the foundation will last several hundred years.

"I think we're both very comfortable that this will be a very good relationship," Turner said.

The Bush Foundation and institute will have separate boards of directors elected every year, but each will have at least one member from SMU. The university and institute also will create an academic advisory committee with representatives from SMU and the foundation to examine joint ventures.

The deal had been considered all but sealed for some time: Bush said last year that he was leaning toward SMU, and the couple are expected to live in Dallas when he leaves office in January. But the process was sometimes bumpy.

Last spring semester the issue dominated many SMU Faculty Senate meetings as some members voiced their opposition, mostly to the partisan think tank that will promote the Bush administration's views and will not be under SMU's control. Some said the library wouldn't provide true access for historians because not all documents would be there.

In one vote on the matter, the faculty group asked the school to request that Bush rescind his order allowing former presidents to keep White House documents secret forever.

Some Methodist ministers also joined the fray, launching an online petition drive that garnered about 11,000 signatures from those opposed to SMU hosting the library, museum and institute. The group said some Bush administration policies _ going to war with Iraq, torturing foreign prisoners _ conflict with church teachings.

Despite Friday's announcement, one of the petition organizers said the fight is still not over.

The Rev. Andrew Weaver said that although a Methodist mission council gave SMU permission last year to lease land for the project, delegates from a larger church body must vote on that decision. The church's South Central Jurisdiction meets in July.

Although some have called such ratifying votes "a technicality," Weaver said the jurisdiction's delegates should be allowed to have their say in the SMU issue. If they don't vote or choose to ratify the council's actions, Weaver said he and others are considering a civil lawsuit.

"It's David vs. Goliath, but the first time that fight went on, David did win," said Weaver, a New York research psychologist who graduated from SMU's Perkins School of Theology.

SMU was named the lone finalist in December 2006, edging out the University of Dallas _ which withdrew a month later _ and Baylor University in Waco near the Bushes' Crawford ranch, which still held out hope for hosting the library until recently.

Texas also has the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station and Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin.